Cuddles

seiya234:

“Yet even though the monster had shown the prince the worse of him, still did the prince trust him. Not only trusted him, but loved him. And thus the prince married the sister of the monster and the three of them lived happily ever after.”

Dipper finished his tale, and looked happily on his niblings, who had long fallen asleep (though Hank surprisingly was the one to last the longest).

He leaned in to give each of them a kiss on the forehead, making sure in the process that their dreams would be pleasant tonight.

“Pole Star, Bright One, Little Fighter…good night,” Dipper whispered. He stepped out of the room and made a motion with his hands, which shut the door gently and turned the light off.

He stood in the hall a second more to make sure his niblings stayed asleep, then began to float down the stairs. Mabel, before she left for an investigation in Kalamazoo, had stocked the fridge full of cookie dough ice cream for him. After spending time with the kids, Dipper thought he had it in him to materialize for a half hour and eat a whole carton of ice cream.

(Mabel knew her brother well, which was why there were seven cartons of ice cream in the freezer.)

Dipper popped on to the material plane, grabbed a carton, and went out into the living room, where Stan had long fallen asleep in his recliner. Dipper snapped and the recliner gently went back.

Also, Grunkle Stan stopped snoring, saving his ears.

Dipper settled in on the couch and began shoveling ice cream in his mouth, watching Duck-Tective on screen.

It was still a little weird to be at home while Mabel was out doing the whole Mystery Twin thing. But when the kids had been born, they had decided that anything that would take longer than two days or was more than four hours away Mabel would handle on her own.

“It’s just,” she had said as they sat on the porch swing feeding the babies, “I know Stan and Henry can take care of themselves and protect the kids but-”

She paused as Acacia spat out her bottle and began to yell. She gave Acacia over to Dipper who handed her Hank in turn.

Mabel went on. “But I’d just feel better knowing you were here to make sure things are okay.”

Dipper had pulled a face at her and she didn’t even need to hear him say anything. Mabel boffed him upside the head.

“And of course I would call you if I needed help brobro- I’m not THAT stubborn!”

Dipper raised his eyebrows and his twin laughed.

His jaunt down memory lane was broken by an intense wave of emotion coming from Henry and Mabel’s bedroom. It was all dark, somber blues, anxious sickly yellows, deep throbbing purples of loneliness, the scent of old books and freckle that Henry exuded usually faded and faint, like something was missing.

Or, Dipper realized with a start, someone.

Sometimes he forgot he wasn’t the only one that missed Mabel when she was away.

He had an idea.

———-

Henry never slept well when Mabel was gone and tonight was no exception.

He was drifting in and out of that odd haze of consciousness and sleep when suddenly the springs of the mattress went clink and he felt next to him warmth and weight.

Henry opened his eyes to find cuddled up on his left hand side Acacia and Willow, with Hank on his right. They had all brought their blankets and the stuffed animals Dipper had made for them so the bed was a little crowded, and were already back asleep.

He ran a hand through Hank’s curls, gently, and looked over at his brother in law, who had joined the triplets on the bed and had spread his wings out over them.

“Sleep over?” Dipper asked a tad sheepfully.

“You got ice cream on your nose Dipper,” Henry pointed out, but he was smiling as he did so. He settled back down into the pile of blankets and children and pillows, and Dipper did the same.

Then Henry had his first full night of sleep since Mabel left three days earlier.

(They did it again the next two nights, and when Mabel finally came home, it was still early enough that the five of them were in bed. She managed to save her squeeing until she had surreptitiously taken some pictures.)